Summer movie season is a bit like summer vacation season, if you tend to return to the same beach, resort, campground or (we hear you) back porch.

Many of the names, films and franchises are familiar, but they get fresh spins the second or third time around, courtesy of a new director or cast.

Hugh Jackman clutches the claws again as Wolverine; the U.S.S. Enterprise returns to the final frontier; Tom Hanks tangles with angels and demons courtesy of Dan Brown; the Terminator gets a makeover; Ben Stiller swaps a New York museum for one in Washington, D.C.; a subway dispatcher and hijacker trade wits and words; Transformers tromp back into theaters; and Johnny Depp plays not a pirate but a charismatic bank robber.

And that's just before the Fourth of July. As always, dates are subject to change and some titles will move ahead, back or drop quietly off the face of the Earth and await a DVD release.

MAY 1

"X-Men Origins: Wolverine": The transformation of hunky Hugh Jackman into Wolverine signals the official start of the 2009 summer movie season. The recent Oscar show host is joined by Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Dominic Monaghan and Ryan Reynolds in this origin story.

"Ghosts of Girlfriends Past": Borrowing a page from Dickens, this comedy stars Matthew McConaughey as a womanizing photographer who is visited by the ghosts of jilted girlfriends as he journeys through past, present and future.

"Battle for Terra": Animated sci-fi film featuring the voices of Evan Rachel Wood and Luke Wilson, among others. When the peaceful inhabitants of the planet Terra come under attack from the last surviving humans adrift in an aging spacecraft, the stage is set for war -- until an unlikely friendship develops.

"Sin Nombre": Writer-director Cary Joji Fukunaga uses his first-hand experiences with Mexican immigrants seeking the promise of the United States to form the basis for this Spanish-language dramatic thriller. He won the U.S. directing award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

"Everlasting Moments": In Sweden in the early 1900s -- a time of social change, unrest, war and poverty -- a young working-class woman wins a camera and makes the life-changing decision to keep it.

"Absurdistan": A romantic comedy, set in a small village in the high desert mountains, where the prospect of a water shortage prompts a bride-to-be to declare, "No water, no sex." The men's only hope is the prospective bridegroom, whose wedding is on hold until he solves the water problem.

"Examined Life": Filmmaker Astra Taylor accompanies some of today's most influential thinkers on a series of unique excursions through places and spaces that hold particular resonance for them and their ideas.

MAY 4

"Say It in Russian": Indie romantic thriller about a successful American divorce attorney who travels to Paris, where he is introduced to a beautiful, enigmatic Russian woman. Steven Brand, Agata Gotova and Faye Dunaway, clad in designs by the late Oleg Cassini, star.

MAY 8

"Star Trek": Zachary Quinto of Green Tree journeys into space as Spock on the U.S.S. Enterprise in this prequel also introducing Chris Pine as James T. Kirk, a delinquent, thrill-seeking Iowa farm boy. J.J. Abrams directs a cast that also includes Leonard Nimoy, Eric Bana, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg.

"Next Day Air": When two bumbling criminals (Mike Epps and Wood Harris) accidentally receive a package of grade-A cocaine, they think they've hit the jackpot. But efforts to cash in on the coke change the lives of 10 people in this action comedy.

"Paris 36": A working-class district in 1936 Paris provides the backdrop for this story of friendship, love, brotherhood and a neighborhood musical hall, the Chansonia.

Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival: The fourth annual event opens on this date and will run through May 17, presenting up to 20 features along with an opening-night gala, guests and other special events.

MAY 11

"When I Find the Ocean": Family film about a girl who longs for the father she lost to the ocean. Leaving behind a safe, loving environment with her grandparents and mother, she faces her fears and the obstacles the wilderness presents.

MAY 15

"Angels & Demons": Tom Hanks is back as Harvard religious expert Robert Langdon, and while he's not saddled with that horrible haircut, he is tangling with the ancient secret brotherhood know as the Illuminati. As with "The Da Vinci Code," it's based on a Dan Brown novel and directed by Ron Howard.

"The Limits of Control": Jim Jarmusch uses contemporary Spain as the backdrop for this story of a mysterious loner whose activities remain meticulously outside the law. The title comes from a 1970s essay by William S. Burroughs, and the project marks the fourth collaboration between Jarmusch and actor Isaach De Bankole.

"12": One of five nominees for the 2007 Oscar for foreign language film (it lost to "The Counterfeiters"), this Russian film by director Nikita Mikhalkov reinterprets "12 Angry Men." In contemporary Moscow, the clashing dozen must decide the fate of a Chechen accused of murder.

MAY 18

"The Best of Ottawa International Animation Festival 2008": Founded in 1975 by the Canadian Film Institute, the annual festival is the largest of its kind in North America. It features award-winning work from well-known and emerging filmmakers in a variety of genres and forms.

MAY 21

"Terminator Salvation": The film franchise, made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger and by Christian Bale's on-set eruption, is reborn. Bale is John Connor, the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators.

MAY 22

"Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian": Ben Stiller trades the Museum of Natural History for the Washington, D.C., landmark where Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams), a villainous Egyptian pharaoh (Hank Azaria), Ivan the Terrible (Christopher Guest) and Napoleon (Alain Chabat) come to life. Owen Wilson and Robin Williams reprise their roles, too.

"Dance Flick": Comedy in which the Wayans brothers spoof inspirational dance movies such as "Flashdance," "You Got Served" and "Step Up."

"The Brothers Bloom": Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel Weisz and Rinko Kikuchi lead the cast of a globe-trotting comedy about the last great adventure of the world's best con men.

"Sugar": Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden ("Half Nelson") redefine chasing the American dream with this story of a talented young Dominican baseball player on his journey to the States to play for a minor-league team in rural Iowa.

"Hunger": This look at Maze Prison in Northern Ireland takes its title and lifeblood from the 1981 IRA hunger strike led by Bobby Sands.

"Squonk Opera's Astro-rama: Live Under the Stars": This will either be considered a keepsake or a chance to see the multimedia rock opera, with video screens and giant props, filmed when it was performed during the Pittsburgh 250 Celebration in October.

MAY 29

"Up": Disney-Pixar comedy adventure about a 78-year-old balloon salesman who ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America. He belatedly discovers he's got a traveling companion in a 9-year-old Wilderness Explorer in this animated movie that will be shown in 3-D in select theaters.

"Drag Me to Hell": As if the housing crisis weren't horrifying enough, along comes an original Sam Raimi tale about an old woman who unsuccessfully begs for an extension on her home loan and curses the ambitious loan officer (Alison Lohman) who turned her down.

"New Muslim Cool": A few days ago, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote: "This spellbinding documentary by San Francisco filmmaker Jennifer Maytorena Taylor gives us the full dimension of a Muslim American man who's a rapper, educator, father, husband and idealist." Turns out Hamza Perez is not just an American but a Pittsburgher.

JUNE 5

"Land of the Lost": The 1970s television series is unearthed and resuscitated with Will Ferrell as a has-been scientist who is sucked into a space-time vortex and spat back through time. Cast also includes Danny McBride and Anna Friel.

"The Hangover": Two days before a wedding, the prospective groom and three buddies drive to Vegas for a night they'll never forget. When they wake up, their suite is trashed and the bridegroom gone in this comedy from "Old School" director Todd Phillips.

"My Life in Ruins" or "How Georgia Got Her Kefi (or Mojo) Back:" Nia Vardalos from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is a travel guide, leading a rag-tag group of tourists in her native Greece, waiting for her dream job and looking for love in this comedy.

JUNE 12

"The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3": In the 1974 original, Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw matched wits. This time, it's Denzel Washington as a New York City subway dispatcher and John Travolta as the criminal mastermind whose gang hijacks a train and threatens to kill the passengers unless ransom is paid within an hour.

"Imagine That": Eddie Murphy stars in a family comedy as a successful financial executive who has more time for his BlackBerry than his 7-year-old daughter until a crisis and creative solution appear.

"Away We Go": John Krasinski, best known as Jim on "The Office," and Maya Rudolph from "Saturday Night Live" are an expectant couple who travel the United States in search of the perfect place to put down roots in this Sam Mendes movie.

JUNE 19

"The Proposal": To avoid deportation, a high-powered book editor claims to be engaged to the assistant she's tormented for years, but he exacts some payback of his own in a romcom with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds.

"Year One": Harold Ramis directs and shares a writing credit on this comedy starring Jack Black and Michael Cera as a couple of lazy hunter-gatherers who are banished from their primitive village and set off on a journey through their ancient world.

JUNE 24

"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen": Shia LaBeouf rejoins the Autobots against their sworn enemies, the Decepticons, in this sequel to the 2007 blockbuster. If the only phrase you recognize in that sentence is Shia LaBeouf, move on down the list.

JUNE 26

"My Sister's Keeper": Jodi Picoult's 11th novel, about a child with a rare form of leukemia and the sibling conceived to provide a donor match for procedures that become increasingly demanding, has been turned into a movie starring Abigail Breslin and others.

"Cheri": Three of the principals behind "Dangerous Liaisons" -- director Stephen Frears, writer Christopher Hampton and actress Michelle Pfeiffer -- reunite in this unconventional romance set in Belle Epoque Paris. A 19-year-old man is educated in the ways of women by a courtesan who happens to be a onetime rival of his mother's, retired from the seduction game.

"Fireflies in the Garden": Robert Frost's poem doubles as the title of this dysfunctional family film starring, among others, Julia Roberts, Ryan Reynolds, Willem Dafoe and Emily Watson.

JULY 1

"Public Enemies": Michael Mann, whose movies are invariably stylish and expertly cast, directs Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard in the story of John Dillinger, the charismatic bank robber whose lightning raids made him a folk hero and the FBI's top target.

"Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs": Scrat is still trying to nab the ever-elusive nut, Manny and Ellie await the birth of their mini-mammoth, Sid the sloth gets into trouble when he hijacks some dinosaur eggs, and Diego the saber-toothed tiger wonders if he's getting too soft by hanging with his pals.

JULY 10

"Bruno": Sacha Baron Cohen ("Borat") strikes again, this time in the guise of a gay Austrian fashionista, whose celebrity interviews were part of HBO's "Da Ali G Show."

"I Love You, Beth Cooper": Larry Doyle turns his novel into a movie about a nerdy valedictorian who proclaims his love for the most popular girl (Hayden Panettiere) in school during his graduation speech.

JULY 15

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince": Once scheduled for fall 2008, this installment about the boy wizard deals with raging teenage hormones, Voldemort's tightening grip on the Muggle and wizarding worlds and an aloof student determined to make his mark.

JULY 17

"500 Days of Summer": Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Tom, who believes in lightning-strikes-once kind of love, and Zooey Deschanel is Summer, who does not, in this unconventional but promising romcom or anti-romcom.

"All the Boys Love Mandy Lane": Amber Heard is a 16-year-old blue-collar beauty who is invited for a getaway by some rich kids who intend to seduce her, but they're being knocked off one by one.

JULY 24

"G-Force": It's guinea pigs to the rescue in a 3-D computer animated comedy-adventure from producer Jerry Bruckheimer. A specially trained squad of guinea pigs is dispatched to stop a diabolical billionaire who plans to take over the world with household appliances.

"The Ugly Truth": Katherine Heigl is a romantically challenged morning show producer whose bosses team her with a hard-core TV personality (Gerard Butler) who promises to spill the ugly truth on what makes men and women tick.

"The Hurt Locker": Kathryn Bigelow directs this action-fueled film, with Jeremy Renner, Brian Geraghty and Anthony Mackie, about soldiers who disarm improvised explosive devices in Baghdad.

"Orphan": Some day, Vera Farmiga may star in a sunny movie. This isn't that day, as she plays a wife who loses her unborn child and is plagued by nightmares and demons from her past. She and her husband (Peter Sarsgaard) adopt a seemingly angelic girl who may just be a bad seed.

JULY 29

"Adam": Romantic comedy starring Hugh Dancy in the title role, a young man who has led a sheltered life until he meets his new and cosmopolitan neighbor (Rose Byrne) who pulls him into the outside world.

JULY 31

"Funny People": After all the movies from Judd Apatow acolytes, this is the real deal. He writes and directs a comedy about a famous comedian who has a near-death experience. In addition to regulars Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann and Jonah Hill, Apatow welcomes Adam Sandler, Eric Bana and Jason Schwartzman.

"They Came From Upstairs": Adventure-comedy about kids on a family vacation who must fight off an attack by knee-high alien invaders, while their parents remain clueless about the wacky warfare.

AUG. 7

"G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra": Stephen Sommers ("The Mummy") directs a live-action feature based on Hasbro's line of action figures and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Sienna Miller, Channing Tatum and Dennis Quaid.

"Julie & Julia": Last names: Powell and Child, played by Amy Adams and Meryl Streep. Powell became an Internet sensation when she decided to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I" in a year.

"When in Rome": An ambitious New Yorker (Kristen Bell), disillusioned with love, takes a whirlwind trip to Rome where she plucks magic coins from a "foolish" fountain of love and ignites the passions of odd suitors and the attention of one charming reporter.

"Shorts": Family film, written and directed by Robert Rodriguez, proving you need to be careful what you wish for. A magical, rainbow-colored rock that falls from the sky turns out to grant wishes, resulting in a neighborhood swarming with tiny spaceships, crocodile armies, giant boogers and other oddities.

AUG. 14

"The Time Traveler's Wife": Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana lead the cast of this adaptation of the best-selling novel by Audrey Niffenegger about a love that transcends time.

"District 9": Sci-fi film set in a world where extraterrestrials have become refugees in South Africa.

"The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard": Jeremy Piven and Ving Rhames star in this comedy, from Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's production company, about an effort to save an ailing local car dealer from bankruptcy.

"A Perfect Getaway": Two couples on a romantic Hawaiian getaway discover that psychopaths are stalking and murdering tourists. Where's Detective Steve McGarrett when you need him? Stars Steve Zahn, Milla Jovovich, Timothy Olyphant and Kiele Sanchez.

"Bandslam": Battle-of-the-bands comedy starring, among others, Vanessa Hudgens and Gaelan Connell.

"Paper Heart": Performer Charlyne Yi, who shared a screenwriting award at this year's Sundance Film Festival, doesn't believe in love and embarks on a quest to discover its true nature. That journey takes on surprising urgency when she meets a boy after her own heart: actor Michael Cera.

"Spread": Ashton Kutcher is a sexual grifter, a fun-loving freeloader who understands his greatest assets are his looks and sexual prowess in this comedy also starring Margarita Levieva, now on screen as Lisa P. in "Adventureland."

"Taking Woodstock": Ang Lee spins back the clock to 1969 as Elliot Tiber (played by Demetri Martin) plays a pivotal role in the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival. He offered his Catskills motel as a home base for organizers, while festivalgoers flocked to a neighbor's farm.

AUG. 21

"Inglourious Basterds": Spellcheck hates the title but director Quentin Tarantino and star Brad Pitt always spell audience interest. Europe in World War II provides the backdrop for Pitt's lieutenant who organizes a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution.

"Post Grad": Alexis Bledel is a college grad who's forced to move back to her childhood home with her stubborn dad, overly thrifty mom and politically incorrect grandma played, respectively, by Michael Keaton, Jane Lynch and Carol Burnett.

AUG. 28

"Final Destination: Death Trip 3D": Another sequel to the March 2000 thriller about how you may think you've cheated death but death never loses. This time, it's in 3-D and features a grisly race-car crash.

"H2 (or Halloween 2)": In 2007, Rob Zombie's new take on John Carpenter's 1978 horror sensation earned $31 million during a long Labor Day weekend. Now, Michael Myers has returned home to sleepy Haddonfield, Ill., to take care of unfinished family business.

"The Boat That Rocked": In 1966, the BBC played only two hours of rock 'n' roll every week but pirate radio blasted rock and pop from the high seas 24 hours a day in this release starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost and -- as a kill joy -- Kenneth Branagh.

"Mesrine: A Film in Two Parts": Che has nothing on Jacques Mesrine, a notorious French criminal whose story is told in two parts, 245 minutes total. Vincent Cassel heads a cast that includes Gerard Depardieu, Mathieu Amalric and Ludivine Sagnier.

SEPT. 4

"Extract": Mike Judge comedy starring Jason Bateman as the owner of a flavor-extract factory who is about to retire when a freak workplace accident sets a series of disasters into motion.

"Pandorum": Two crew members stranded on a spacecraft, much to their horror, realize they are not alone after awakening in a hyper-sleep chamber. Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster, Cam Gigandet lead the cast.

ALSO

"Tyson": Indie director James Toback allows Mike Tyson to reveal himself through original interviews, archival footage and photographs, tracing his earliest days on the mean streets of Brooklyn to his boxing glory, fame, fortune and fall.

"O'Horten": After Norwegian train engineer Odd Horten (Bard Owe) is forced to retire after 40 years, his orderly, solitary existence gives way to unlikely adventures and puzzling dilemmas in this film from the director of "Factotum," "Kitchen Stories" and "Eggs."

"The Cove": Documentary tracking a high-tech dive team on a mission to discover the truth about the international dolphin capture trade in Taji, Japan.